Monday, October 5, 2009

Reach out and touch faith.

It was one of those weekend evenings when I happened to be at the office downtown for work. I don't remember exactly what I was doing at work that Sunday (was it a Sunday?), but I do remember vividly the trip home on the Red Line. In typical Sunday CTA fashion, I had been waiting longer than I'd like to have for the northbound train at the State/Lake subway platform. In a not-so-typical fashion, when the train arrived I got one of those seats I love: a single facing sideways so you don't have to pretend you're skinnier than you are to share a seat when you were just trying to get home at the end of a seven day work week.


As I pulled out my book--What is the What was it?--i noticed almost immediately the woman across from me: a pleasant looking woman of Asian descent in a red t-shirt, sitting in CTA's version of a love seat, facing forward. As any metropolitan-ite will tell you, after a month or so riding public transit you've pretty much seen everything. Having been a faithful Red Liner for going on four years, this is doubly the case. Being a not-so-typical Sunday afternoon, however, what this woman was doing captivated the hell out of me.

I let my book rest on my lap as I watched this person diligently learn the prayers of the rosary. With a brand-new set of prayer beads and a shiny new prayer pamphlet, she memorized portions of the prayer, quizzed herself, put the pamphlet away to practice and started all over again. This women's newfound sense of faith, or perhaps newfound sense of Catholicism really perked up the atheist in me.

I don't know if the upcoming "music plays" (as we called them at the time) for The Ruckus were in my mind at that point or not, but Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" began to play as if it had replaced the announcements everyone has memorized booming from the train's loud speaker.

I didn't write my short play based on that song and commute until several weeks later. This was my first foray into the world of playwriting. It scared the shit out of me. I like the end result. Come see Tell It & Speak It & Think It & Breathe It Let me know what you think.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the how the play came to be. As your director, these stories that keep popping up surrounding your script are priceless. Thanks for posting.

Mr. Blue said...

Only on the L...

... and hundreds of other public transit systems across the earth...